Falklands : Hydrocarbons Daily Record (18/04/07)
Submitted by Falkland Islands News Network (Juanita Brock) 18.04.2007 (Article Archived on 02.05.2007)
Analysts' predictions of a 1.5 Million barrel decrease in gasoline inventories was optimistic and the 2.7 Million barrel decrease caused crude prices to increase today.
HYDROCARBONS DAILY RECORD: WEDNESDAY, 18 APRIL 2007
By J. Brock (FINN)
At 1800hrs LMT on Wednesday, 18 April 2007 Light Sweet Crude was trading at$63.13 up 3 Cents on the New York Mercantile Exchange and Brent Crude was trading at $66.15 up 22 Cents on London’s Ice Futures Market.
ANALYSIS:
Analysts’ predictions that gasoline production in the US would decrease by 1.5 Million Barrels were wrong and this caused the price of crude to increase today.
On the horizon is the hurricane season due to begin on 01June. It is not clear whether this will be an El Nino year (2006 was an El Nino year) or a La Nina year (2005 was a La Nina year). This will not be known until the end of May. It is the sea conditions in the western Pacific Ocean that dictates whether the US Gulf Coast will or will not be in the path of hurricanes. refineries located in the US Gulf coast suffered severe damage during the 2005 hurricane season, a factor in the increase of crude prices that year.
BRIEF INVENTORY REPORT:
Crude: Inventory down by 1 Million Barrels to 332.4 Million barrels
Gasoline: Inventories of gasoline declined by 2.7 Million Barrels to .. This was far more than the expected decline by 1.5 Million Barrels.
Refinery Output: The Wednesday, 04 April report from the Department of Energy Administration stated that Refinerieswere operating at 87% of capacity. Today the report says that they are running at 89% capacity. This is 2 points above that mark and not the increase of 0.4% that analysts predicted.
THE MARKETS
FTSE 100: 6,449.40 down 48.38
FTSE 250: 11,874.60 down 52.01
SmallCap: 4,080.10 up 1.61
Share prices declined today due to the Bank if England increasing interest rates from 5.25% to 5.50%.
DJI: 12,803.84 up 30.80 – The first time closing above 12800
NASDAQ: 2,510.50 down 6.45
S&P 500: 1,472.50 up 1.02
REGIONAL DEVELOPMENTS:
Bolivia and Argentina:
The supply of natural gas between Bolivia and Argentina is flowing again after Bolivian soldiers put down a pipeline take-over by protestors. The riot near a pipeline partly owned by Royal Dutch Shell Plc began when protestors took control of a major pumping station and ended after a protester was killed.
(Falkland Islands)
RELEVANT SHARE PRICES:
TLW: 365.00 down 5.50
DES: 26.00 down 0.25
FOGL: 88.00 Unchanged
RKH: 35.00 Unchanged
BOR: 27.50 Unchanged
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